井 → 師
Hexagram 48: The Well → Hexagram 7: The Army
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 5).
Line 3
九三 井渫不食。為我心惻。可用汲。王明。並受其福。
Nine in the third place means: The well is cleaned, but no one drinks from it. This is my heart's sorrow, For one might draw from it. If the king were clear-minded, Good fortune might be enjoyed in common.
Line 5
九五 井冽。寒泉食。
Nine in the fifth place means: In the well there is a clear, cold spring From which one can drink.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
側弁醉客，重舌作凶。披髮夜行，迷亂相誤，亡失居止。
Cap tilted, the drunken guest; with doubled tongue invites calamity. Hair unbound, walking in the night; bewildered and astray, losing his way and his dwelling.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water drawn up through wood demands discipline at the wellhead, yet here all discipline collapses. A drunken guest tilts his cap sideways, slurs with a doubled tongue, and brings misfortune. He loosens his hair and stumbles through the night, confused and lost, until he forfeits his very dwelling. The 'capped askew' and 'hair unbound' mark progressive stages of ritual degradation: first the hat slips, then all decorum falls away. From The Well to The Army, water hidden within the earth must be marshaled with order. The well's communal resource, mismanaged by a drunkard, becomes the army's nightmare — an undisciplined force that loses its base instead of defending it.
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